David Lean’s Brief Encounter in Concert

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https://qso.com.au/events/2025/matinee-moments/brief-encounter-in-concert

Date Reviewed: 19/07/2025

Cinema has a history of ‘enhancements’ - usually unsuccessful. Sensurround didn’t work in multiplexes. Smell-O-Rama made its only appearance in the film Scent of Mystery. Producer William Castle had a range of gimmicks - Emergo, Illusion-O and the notorious Percepto, which vibrated certain seats. 3D glasses have come and gone several times. In general, they were merely stunts to jazz up duff films (Jaws III, anyone?).

The daddy, of course, was musical accompaniment. Grander theatres even employed orchestras to elevate silent movies into something magical. In time, these enhancements would be swept away by innovations, from the talkies to home streaming.

In the QPAC concert hall, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra has fused the best of both those worlds. A celebrated talking picture, beautifully restored and presented on a big screen in a lavish venue, accompanied by a first-rate orchestra playing a famous classical score. If anything is a sure bet, this is it. The whole exercise exudes class.

Much of this is due to the choice of film. 1945’s Brief Encounter has a sterling pedigree. Adapted from the Noel Coward play Still Life and directed by David Lean, it is one of the most poignant portrayals of forbidden love ever made. Coward toned down his louche, cynical wit and Lean had yet to embark on the epics like Lawrence of Arabia or Doctor Zhivago, which would turn his career stratospheric. Brief Encounter is small and intimate but equally worthy of the QSO treatment.

The plot is simple. Two ordinary, married people fall for each other but cannot shun the shackles of duty, respectability and convention. As Alec Harvey, Trevor Howard has a chiselled jaw and a voice that would put Richard Burton to shame, yet is perfectly believable as ‘just an ordinary GP’. Celia Johnson’s respectable middle-class housewife, Laura Jesson, has the most expressive eyes in the business but they only reveal brief flashes of vivaciousness. More often, they are filled with guilt and despair.

This is a movie unafraid to be mundane. Its dialogue charts the trivial details of humdrum existence. The lovers find escapism in afternoons at the cinema or drives in the country and only kiss twice. Much of their time is spent at a drab railway station tearoom where the only levity comes from a running joke about the freshness of the cakes.

Though their tryst is frustratingly chaste, the chemistry between the leads is undeniable and the dreary settings are artfully shot. Lean skews camera angles and lingers on intimate close-ups that pull us irresistibly into Alec and Julia’s dilemma. Robert Krasker’s cinematography wraps the film in deep shadows, bringing depth and lustre to the black and white of this wonderfully restored print. Even sitting drinking tea, Johnson’s Oscar-nominated turn generates the tension of a ticking bomb.

That the bomb never goes off only adds to the poignancy. Alec and Julia’s last moments together recall Casablanca - until they are infuriatingly interrupted by a nosy acquaintance. It’s hard to imagine Humphry Bogart’s selfless final declaration to Ingrid Bergman being stopped by a café regular complaining about Rick’s prices. Here, it is honest and agonising - the famed British reserve portrayed as a prison, not a virtue.

This is something Hollywood has rarely understood. Restraint can give a glance or touch the weight of a passionate embrace. The intensity of the look that passes between Laura and Alec when they realise they are in love is gasp-inducing. Laura’s attempts to suppress her bitterness at the role society has foisted on her are heartrending.

To top it all, there is that famous score. Rachmaninoff’s beloved Piano Concerto No. 2 has to be one of the reasons QSO picked Brief Encounter and they certainly do it justice. Conductor Benjamin Northey, Pianist Konstantin Shamray and the orchestra integrate sound and visuals seamlessly. The music swells and surges, countering the austere visuals and unspoken feelings, offering a release to the audience that the lovers can never have. When performed live, the effect is spine-tingling. I’m sure there are many people who would happily shut their eyes and simply listen to a world-class orchestra playing a world-class piece. And to be honest, Brief Encounter doesn’t need this ‘enhancement’ to be worth seeing. But it’s churlish to sniff at the icing on a cake just because it never goes stale.

Verdict. An undisputed movie masterpiece presented by the QSO with style and passion

Reviewed by Jan-Andrew Henderson